AfriForum, Solidarity and the Solidarity Support Centre for Schools (SCS) have started with legal action against the promulgation of the Bela Act.

According to these organisations, President Cyril Ramaphosa acted irrationally and in breach of various agreements, as well as a recommendation by the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, by promulgating the Bela Act in its entirety. Gwarube recommended that the implementation of the language and admissions policy be postponed due to the absence of appropriate norms and standards.

The Minister has also acted irrationally, according to these organisations, because she co-signed the promulgation notice and therefore acted against her own recommendations of barely two weeks prior to Ramaphosa that this act must not be promulgated in its entirety. Gwarube also made recommendations to Ramaphosa that would have afforded protection to, among other things, mother language education and Afrikaans schools.

AfriForum, Solidarity and the SCS, all part of the Solidarity Movement, have already sent legal letters to Ramaphosa and Gwarube respectively, wherein it is shown that signing the promulgation notice was irrational.

In terms of the legal letters, the minister and the president have ten days to resolve the dispute. If there is no resolution, the parties have no other choice than to approach the court.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the promulgation of the Bela Act in its entirety is an act of aggression by the government against Afrikaans schools and children. “The promulgation indicates that the ANC is busy turning the government of national unity into the government of national disagreement that aims to coopt parties like the DA and FF+ to help the ANC carry out its policy,” Kriel adds.

Dr Dirk Hermann, COO of Solidarity, indicated that his organisation was unpleasantly surprised to see that the Bela Act was promulgated in its entirety, without any of the conditions the minister recommended to the president. According to him, the promulgation was a dishonourable breach of the agreement that the government signed with Solidarity at Nedlac. “The Constitution and case law confirm that the minister’s recommendation, as the person responsible for implementing the act, carries weight. The promulgation of a law is not the sole task of the president. The purpose of the minister’s recommendations is to postpone the act’s enactment so that the necessary steps can be taken to implement the act effectively,” says Hermann.

According to Leon Fourie, CEO of the SCS, the president provided no explanation for ignoring the minister’s recommendations and the agreements reached. “It appears that the president’s irrational promulgation of the Bela Act in its entirety succumbed to the political pressure from the anti-Afrikaans elements within the ANC,” says Fourie.

Werner Human, Head of Operations at the Solidarity Movement, indicated that the institutions of the Solidarity Movement will this year, apart from the legal steps against the promulgation notice of the Bela Act, also focus on seeing to it that the norms and standards, and the regulations regarding the language and admissions policies of schools that the Minister of Basic Education must now compile, contains provisions that will aim to prevent education officials from abusing their power and targeting Afrikaans schools. “The institutions of the Solidarity Movement also reserve the right to take legal action against the unconstitutionality of the Bela Act itself, after concluding the legal process against the promulgation notice,” Human adds.